Egypt’s highest administrative court has delivered a stinging rebuke to the country’s National Election Authority, finding “systemic mismanagement” and “gross legal misconduct,” in the parliamentary district results it had voided Sunday.
In the court’s written justification, obtained by Al Manassa, judges highlighted unprecedented disarray in the management of the ongoing parliamentary elections—pointing not only to procedural irregularities but also to the NEA's failure to cooperate with the judiciary.
While the NEA’s executive director, Ahmed Bendari, publicly cited “technical or procedural issues” as reasons for the cancellations—such as subcommittees failing to deliver vote-tally records to candidate representatives—the court rejected this characterization as “inaccurate.”
Rather than compliance, the court found the NEA refused to submit vote-counting records as ordered. The court ruled this omission a “grave error” and a legal breach, thereby supporting petitioners’ claims of serious fraud.
The court stopped short of probing other allegations made in the legal challenges, such as vote buying, campaign violations near polling stations, or interference with voter intent. But it ruled that the NEA’s failure to provide counting records constituted sufficient grounds to question the legality of the declared results.
Consequently, the court declared the runoff announcements in these 30 districts to be “legally baseless,” ordering that new elections be held in all affected constituencies under the single-member system.
On Saturday, the court issued had issued 30 final and unappealable rulings cancelling the NEA’s decision to certify runoffs in these constituencies. Elections had been scheduled for the first week of December.
The court’s ruling also revealed further breakdowns in the NEA’s conduct. In several cases, the authority submitted incomplete or insufficient records—below the legally required number—making it impossible for the court to issue informed verdicts on the disputes.
In ten of the annulled districts, for example, the NEA either refused entirely or partially failed to submit 700 vote-counting reports from the subcommittees. These included:
According to the court’s findings, the Authority withheld documents in multiple districts, including 176 tally sheets for three Assiut districts, and 55 for Esna in Qena, while providing only partial records in others such as 15 of 107 sheets for Bandar Minya. The court said these omissions prevented it from assessing the legality of the results.
These rulings come on the heels of earlier NEA cancellations in 19 other districts, following a directive from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who had called on the NEA to investigate irregularities and, if necessary, void results from the first round.
The second phase of voting did little to restore confidence. According to observers and legal experts, it mirrored the same pattern of procedural chaos, leaving Egypt’s electoral system increasingly discredited in the eyes of the public.
